CONTAMINATED lamb distributed by a North Wales meat supplier has made it to the shelves of supermarkets and shops throughout Britain.

Yesterday it emerged that the butchered meat had been supplied to NINE retailers, including supermarket giants Morrisons and Asda, food wholesalers Makro, and several unnamed small retail outlets.

The Daily Post exclusively revealed earlier this week how the batch of meat and offal processed at the Welsh Country Foods abattoir at Gaerwen, Anglesey, contained drugs and chemicals from a sheep dip.

It was uncertain last night how much of the lamb in question had already been bought and how much remained on sale.

Asda has issued an appeal for anyone who has purchased any of the affected meat to return it immediately.

Both Morrisons and Makro said all the products supplied by Welsh Country Foods had been accounted for.

But a Food Standards Agency spokeswoman said: “The other suppliers are of limited traceability, so investigations are on-going into those locations.”

The lambs in question were found to contain the drug Doramectin, used to treat sheep scab, that was not given enough time to pass through their systems.

It is used to treat parasites such as gastrointestinal roundworms, lungworms, eyeworms, grubs, sucking lice and mange mites.

The FSA spokeswoman said: “Concerns around Doramectin relate to repeated exposure that has caused sickness and other effects in laboratory animals.

“Its effect on humans is unknown.”

Welsh Country Foods bought the Scottish and English lambs from a livestock auction in Cumbria – the animals were raised for breeding, not to be slaughtered for the table.

A vet present at the market smelt chemicals on animals being sold for meat and alerted staff.

The FSA now begun an investigation into the mix-up and whether Welsh Country Foods acted legally in putting this type of lamb into the food chain.

The spokeswoman added: “There are different legal requirements for meat which goes into the food chain, particularly about medicine withdrawal periods.

“It is inappropriate they were sold into the food chain. It is too early to speculate about a prosecution at this stage – it is a matter of getting to the bottom of facts.”

NFU Cymru spokesman Paul Williams said the incident had “outraged” farmers in North Wales who had been suffering poor prices at markets for their animals. “These lambs were brought to Gaerwen from northern England and Scotland for slaughter, but it is local producers who are bearing the brunt of complaints.”